


Survivors of Shield

by KadeMaki



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Disassembled, Caw Caw Motherfucker, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 01:32:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1571024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KadeMaki/pseuds/KadeMaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Melody was just a normal 9 to 5'er when the zombie outbreak occurred.  Now she's stuck with her neighbor's kid.  What happens when they run into a man who was a part of a group of superheroes who saved New York a few years before the outbreak.  Will they go with until he finds his friends? and if they do, what will happen if Melody starts to get attached to the group?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Survivors of Shield

It had been six months since the infectious outbreak. Six long grueling months of complete torture. When the outbreak first occurred, no one had known what to do. No one was expecting a bioweapon to be launched on the world and no one was prepared to deal with anything like it. But everyone who was still alive could remember exactly what they were doing the day of the outbreak. Melody could picture it like it was yesterday. It was a normal Saturday in the District of Columbia and she was sitting outside in her neighbors Zach and Caroline Lennox’s backyard, watching as the their twin daughter’s Maxine and Jessica as well as other neighborhood children played in the oval shaped pool during the neighborhood cookout, when she first saw one. Of course back then no one had any idea what contact with one could mean, she just thought it was a downtrodden man who was ill or confused as he wandered closer to her neighbors chain link fence. It wasn't until he repeatedly began to bang his body into the fence that anyone began to pay attention to him. 

Being the host, Zach had taken it upon himself to ask the man to leave but had instead found himself in a shoving match with the man when the man bit him on the arm. Caroline had quickly called the police and even then the man had bitten another officer before being subdued. But the incident had been quickly forgotten when Mrs. Halston had brought out her infamous home made rum cake and Joe insisted everyone of legal drinking age have tequila shots with their slice. The rest of the party had gone over without a hitch, the next day was slower, most likely because most of the adults who had attended the party were nursing hangovers while trying to feed their children Sunday breakfast. But that following week, all hell broke loose. 

Monday night, her neighborhood turned upside down. Her neighbor Zach’s bite had forced him to turn and he attacked his family, but not before one of the twins, Jessica, had got away to Melody’s house for safety. When Melody had gone to the Lennox house to look for Maxine and Caroline, she ended up having to kill Zach and Caroline. But when it came to killing Maxine, she couldn’t do it. She hated to admit it but it was like the the movies were real. No one wanted to admit that zombies could exist but now their eyes didn't like. One look out the windows, and the pair decided that it was no where near safe to go out. Those things were everywhere from what Melody could tell. The pair stayed holed up in Melody’s house for three days before Melody realized they couldn’t stay at her house much longer. Melody decided that the best thing for them to do was to make their way out of the city. The suburbs and country side had to be much less packed with zombies. She had packed as much as she could for her and Jessica before they set off in the early morning hours. They had on the road now for five weeks, stopping whenever they came to a small town to spend a few days to rest and recharge before heading back out. 

Today was no different, they were holed up in an abandoned road side hotel a hundred miles west of D.C.. They had been there three days, going through all of the rooms trying to find anything useful they could take with them. Aside from the few zombies they had taken care of upon arriving, the place was actually nice for a hotel. It was on a large property fenced in enough to keep the stray zombies out and allow the two to run around without fear of coming across stray zombies. It also had a pool that had to have been heavily chlorinated before it was abandoned because it was somehow still in decent condition for being abandoned. It provided Jessica some much needed play time while Melody didn't have to be on high alert while the young girl played outside. 

Even though they had zombies to worry about, the one thing the pair feared were other living people. While zombies were terrifying at times, their movements and attacks were predictable, people on the other hand had become volatile, desperate and unpredictable since the outbreak. Zombies just wanted to kill you so they could eat you, people wanted everything you had, and sometimes you yourself. They would do anything to get what you had and some wanted to make you suffer while they did it. Melody had watched a group of people surround and torture a man even after he had given over all of his supplies. If the zombies made the world a dangerous place, the people who had survived the outbreak made it even worse. The world had changed, and it was certainly not for the better. But for now, Melody shoved those thought to the back of her mind and tried to be just content watching Jess play in the pool and acting like a kid while she read her book and kept a lookout for anything wandering too close to the fences and road.

“Melody, come play with me! It’s hot and you never play with me in the water!” Melody looked over at the ten year old girl as she clung to edge of pool. 

“Not today Jess, I want to keep an eye for zoms and people. But you go ahead, have fun, we’ll have to pack up in a few days and move on, and I want you to have fun while we can.” 

“Please, you never play with me, you’re always watching, but nobody’s here and nothing’s going to happen.” One look again at Jess’s big puppy eyed pout made Melody sigh in surrender and start to strip down to her t-shirt and underwear and jump into the pool. The two quickly began a splashing match before seeing who could hold their breath the longest under the water. 

After a few hours in the pool, the pair headed inside to put together dinner from what was left of their supplies. Food wasn’t too hard to come by since the outbreak, the problem was finding food that would actually give you energy and not just empty calories or a sugar high.

“Melody, do we have to eat rice and and beef jerky again? We’ve eaten it two days in a row!” Jess groaned before pushing the rice and meat away from her. “Do we have anything else?” 

“Jess, you know we don’t much else…unless you want to eat the last packs of skittles we got before we left Arlington?” Melody smirked, knowing the poor girls sweet tooth had worn out after they came upon gas station that was empty of everything but a crate of skittles. They had eaten two packs a day for three days until their teeth started to hurt before calling quits on eating sugary foods. 

“Oh god no, rice and beef jerky is good,” Jess quickly grabbed her spoon and dragged her plate closer to her and began to shove rice into her mouth as fast as she could. “I hope when we go out again, we find something else to eat… I don’t really like this stuff, but its better than just those skittles.” The young girl sighed and glanced around the small kitchen of the motel. The sunlight filtering through the one dusty window in the room showed it would be getting dark soon. Every night, no matter where they were, they always barricaded themselves in a room in case something or someone passed through the area while they were asleep. The last thing they wanted was for a zom to hear them snoring and break into their room and attack them while they slept. The barricade also made a small defense in case people drifted through the area, and tried to get in. Most people wouldn’t bother a sealed door in the dark in case zombies were on the other side. But putting a barricade up also meant they would be sealing themselves in for hours and unless there was an emergency, they wouldn't leave the room until dawn. 

The two finished their dinner and headed for their chosen room on the second floor and began to build the barricade against the door. They had chosen the family vacation suite because it was larger than the other rooms with separate rooms inside for parents and kids, meaning for the first time in a while the two didn't have to share a bed or Melody didn't have to sleep on floor to let the girl sleep in the usually small beds. It also helped that the room had a a balcony with a retractable fire escape, on the opposite end of the hotel from the entrance so they could use to get away to the car in a hurry if they needed to. Afterwards, the two sat on the on the small balcony reading some of the few books they had found as the sun began to set. 

Melody had just began her nightly routine of checking to see if there were any obvious weak areas in the fencing she could see or any zoms that had made it through the far part of the fences that she couldn’t when the she became aware of a faint light in the distance. Melody wearily watched as the light separated into two and a faint car engine roar was heard in the distance. She glanced down at Jessica, who caught her eye and quickly went inside and closed the curtains, before peeking out of them. Melody hunched down behind the balcony wall as to not be seen and watched as a black SUV neared the hotel. The bulky SUV slowed as it passed the hotel before speeding up and continuing down the road. Melody breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed against the wall. Despite the remaining light, the two decided to stay inside and call it a day in case the noise of the SUV had attracted any of the dead to the hotel. 

Melody was almost asleep when she heard sound of the thick metal gates outside the hotel being forced open. She sat up and squinted at the shadows on the wall from the dim artificial light coming in the window. She rushed across the room to the window and saw that the SUV was back and its driver pushing back the gate. She could now feel her heart rate picking up as she watched the driver of the car get back in the SUV and pull into the front parking lot of the hotel before getting out and trying to close the gate. She could see the driver clearer now, he was a little under six feet maybe an inch or two taller than her, and had dark blonde or brown hair. He seemed to be alone but since it was dark, she couldn't see inside the tinted windows of the SUV. Melody hurried to wake Jessica, they needed to be ready to go as soon as he entered the hotel. The last thing she needed was to have someone take all the supplies they had picked up over the past few months…and possibly hurt the two of them. 

“Jess, wake up! We have to go! There’s someone out there, come on get up!” Melody whispered-shouted as she began to shake the young girl. 

“Melody? What’s going on? Someone’s outside?” Melody knew the girl was disoriented from having been woken up so soon but they had to go. Jess’s eyes adjusted to the dark room’s dim lighting before her brain fully woke up and she jumped out of bed and pulling on her jacket and backpack and before helping Melody, stuff the sheets from the bed into an extra bag. The two held their breath as the grabbed everything they could from the room and peered out of the window watching the man in the SUV. He hadn't done much while they had packed their things but grab what seemed to be a bow and quiver and slowly pace back and forth around the front of the hotel. “He looks kinda familiar…I think We’ve seen him before…but I don’t know where… Melody, what are we going to do? What if he comes in? Our car is in the back of the building, what if he sees us?”

Melody stiffened, she’d known that they'd have to somehow sneak around back without being seen but she hadn't thought that Jess would have realized how dangerous it would be. She didn’t want the girl to worry or be scared but she had no consolation to offer her. 

“ He does look familiar but I can’t put my finger on where we’ve seen him.. maybe he was in one of the groups we passed before… We’ll just have to be faster than him, it looks like he’s alone. So once he comes into the hotel we can put the fire escape down and make a run for it. We can drive out of here and go to the house up the road we stayed at while we cleared this place before he can follow us. We might have to sleep in the car tonight just in case, we can’t keep driving in case the lights give us away and we can’t leave the car in case we get surrounded by zoms.” Melody sighed thinking about how quick they would have to be get out of the parking lot before the man could make it back to his SUV and follow them if he heard or saw them. 

The two watched as the man finally walked over to the entrance of the hotel, and glanced over the hotel exterior once more before opening the door and going in. Melody counted to ten before sliding the balcony door open, hoping the man was a few steps into the hotel and wouldn't hear the noise of the fire escape going down. She slowly poked her head out and seeing no one, rushed to the fire escape and pushed it down, cringing at the sound of metal on metal as the ladder slid to the ground. She climbed down the ladder with Jessica close behind. When the two were on the ground, a daunting problem entered Melody’s mind. She had forgotten about the gate. It would be impossible to start the car and force the heavy gate open and get away without the man inside noticing. Melody’s mind raced with all the possibilities that could happen now that they were outside and exposed. They could stay outside and run in the dark to the utility shed a little under a quarter of a mile away on the property and try to make a break for it in the morning. No, the man would probably not move on before checking all the rooms on the property for supplies and they couldn't get away in broad daylight. It had to be now. It left them one option.

“Jessica, I need you to take the keys and get the car while I open the gate.” 

“What? Melody, I can’t, I’m not good at driving what if that guy hears me trying to start the car-” 

“Jess, you've started the car before, you’ve even driven a few times, it’ll be okay.” 

“Melody, I can’t, I’ll do that thing where the engine floods I’ll-“ Jess was starting to panic and Melody knew their window to get out was closing. 

“Look Jess, if you don’f get the car while I open the gate, that means I have to get the car and open the gate. He’ll hear us when we start the car and he’ll be out here before even I can get the gate open. That’s why you have to get the car while I get the gate. You just have to drive it around front and after the gate is open, I’ll drive us out of here. But we have to do this now before he comes back out.” Melody watched as Jess tried to calm herself down, before she handed her the car keys. “You can do this, we’ve made it out of worse jams than this. I believe in you, now go!” With that Jess turned and took off towards the back parking lot. Melody wasted no time in sprinting across the lot to the gate. As quietly as she could, she started to push against the heavy metal gate. Time seemed to go by slowly. She kept her eyes turned between the entrance of the hotel as she pushed it hoping to not see the man’s silhouette coming outside and a few stray zoms that must have been drawn in by the SUV and the sound of the gate. When she heard the car start, she put all her weight against the gate forcing it the rest of the way open. She let out a sigh of relief as she saw the car’s headlights coming around the side of the building. She glanced back at the entrance of the hotel, seeing no sign of the man, she took as a sign that they could get away before he realized what had happened. 

But just as Jess began to pull the car around the corner to get to the gate, she heard the unmistakable moaning from a zom right behind her. Everything happened in slow motion, she turned to see a zom directly behind her, no more than an arm’s length away. She panicked realizing that in their haste to get out of hotel, she hadn't properly armed herself to fend off zoms. That’s when she heard a loud whirring noise and a slight breeze pass her face. The zom crumpled to the ground with an arrow planted between its eyes. She spun around to see the man from the SUV leaning out of the drivers side of her car window, his bow in his hand with Jess in the passenger seat. Melody’s mind was reeling, while she was grateful this man had just possibly saved her life, he was also in the car with Jess, close enough to hurt her. She wasn't sure if she should be thanking the man or in fear of Jess’ life. She started toward the car and quickly yanked Jess out as the man got out on the other side. 

“Jess, are you okay? what did he do to you?” Melody said spinning the ten year old around and looking her over. “Did he hurt you?”

“Melody, I’m fine,” Jess beamed up at her, “he wouldn't hurt me.”

“Honey, you don’t know that, we don’t know him. You know how people can be these days!”

“Melody, he wont hurt us, he’s a hero, he saved you.” Melody shook her head. 

“Jess, you can't say someone’s a hero just because he saved me. He could have saved me so he could get our stuff.”

“No, Melody, remember when I said he looked familiar? He helped save New York! Well at least, before the outbreak. He was part of the Avengers! Remember? They saved us from the aliens! He’s Hawkeye!” 

Recognition washed over Melody as she glanced over at the man standing on the other side of her car. She recalled the battle a little over a year and a half before the outbreak. A group of superheroes had trashed New York while saving the human race from aliens. But she couldn’t be sure if he still felt the same way since the outbreak, he might be more willing to get rid of his fellow humans now that everything had gone to shit.

“I see you guys tried to sneak out without saying hello, I thought that with so few people left in the world, the living ones would at least say hi these days. People used to call me Hawkeye, but seeing as there are way less people around these days, and its just us, you can call me Clint, Clint Barton.” 

Melody glanced between him and the bow in his hand. “I’m Melody and this is Jess…” The man, Clint, looked between her and Jess and chuckled. 

“I’m not looking to hurt you if that’s what your thinking. I don’t even want your stuff. Like the girl said, I helped save humanity once, I’m not going to start hurting people just because things have gone belly up. I was just looking for a place to crash for the night and this place seemed like the most secure place for miles. But when I heard you guys trying to sneak away, I thought I should at least introduce myself before you got away.” 

“Introduce yourself? Why would you want to help us? You don’t seem like you’re in the best situation yourself,” Melody motioned towards the SUV, “you're alone right? Where are your friends?” 

Clint looked over shoulder at the SUV, “Yeah, I’m alone. My friends and I were separated before the outbreak. We haven’t been able to meet up yet. Every time we get close to all being near same place, a horde of zoms keeps us apart. I haven't heard from them for a few weeks but the last message said that we were to all head towards Pittsburgh… That’s actually why I wanted to stop you before you left… I haven’t seen anyone alive for weeks and even though you have no reason to trust me, I wanted to ask if you maybe wanted to…group up. At least, if we’re headed the same way for awhile… It beats being alone.”

“Melody, can we go with him? Please! We’ve been on our own for so long and he’s an Avenger! He won’t hurt us!” Jessica said, wrapping her arms around Melody’s waist and starting to jump up and down. Melody looked down uneasily at the girl.

“I’m not sure Jess, we might not even be going the same way as him…” 

“But Melody, you said yesterday that we didn't have a plan to go anywhere and that we were just drifting until we found someplace we could settle down. We can go with him and meet the other Avengers!” Melody sighed.

“Jess, we can’t just go with him, we don’t even know if the others will want us around. They don’t know us and we don’t know them so-” 

“Actually, my friends won’t mind a few extra friendly faces. There aren't many people left and we could use extra hands to help rebuild our base, when we find a place to build one.”

“SEE! He said it’s okay, can we go with them? Please Mel? Please?” Melody looked down at Jessica’s pouting face and sighed. 

Looking back at Clint, she counted to five and took a deep, “Fine, we’ll go with you. But I can’t promise that we’ll stay with you until you find your friends.” Jess started to whine in protest, until Melody silenced her with a look. “We’ll stay until we find a place to settle or if you find your friends and they say we can stay. Whichever comes first.” Clint nodded. 

“I understand. It was hard to trust before the outbreak and it’s harder now. But welcome aboard. Now if you dont mind, I’d like to get some sleep before we set out again. I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable so I’ll sleep in a room to myself and we can figure things out in the morning, that way you can sleep on things and see if you really want to come with me. But first let me this gate closed. We wouldn't want any of those things getting in while we sleep now do we?” Melody and Jess watched as Clint closed gate before gathering their things from the car and heading back to the hotel. 

“You’ll have to go back in through entrance, we put a barricade against our door so we’ll go back in through the fire escape. The keys are behind the desk under the counter, just pick any room and we can meet up in the kitchen after dawn.” Clint nodded and walked them over to the fire escape.

“Okay then…I’ll pick a room near yours, in case something happens, just call out.” He crouched down in front of Jessica. “Goodnight Jessica.” He stood and winked at Melody. “Have a goodnight.”


End file.
